The present invention relates generally to an actuator, especially for a container device disposed in a vehicle such as an ashtray or a glove compartment which is equipped with the above indicated actuator. More particularly, the invention relates to a container device which allows a container to be automatically moved to its open position out of a predetermined container in which the chamber is stored.
In a commonly known automatic ashtray device which is one of container devices disposed in a vehicle and equipped with an actuator, an ashtray container serving as a container case is held within a predetermined chamber by a latching means which is disengaged as required to permit the ashtray container to be automatically moved to its open position out of the chamber by a biasing force of a spring member of an actuator. In recent years, there has been proposed an ashtray device the ashtray container of which is moved to the open position at a relatively low speed so that ashes and cigarette butts are not scattered out from the ashtray container.
This kind of ashtray device is disclosed in Japanese patent applications which were published June 25 and July 8, 1982 under Publication Nos. 57-102179 and 57-110186, respectively. These prior art devices all have damper means for damping an opening speed of the ashtray container, and a separate spring member acting as an element of an actuator. Therefore, the conventional ashtray devices, especially ashtray devices for automobiles, have a problem in that the producticity of the automobiles is reduced due to assembling of the ashtray device in the production line. They also have a problem in that since the damping means and the spring means must be mounted in different spaces, the ashtray device requires relatively large mounting spaces and a resultant dead space, which is unfavorable in the arrangement of other vehicle members.